Our writers, friends, and followers had the opportunity to participate in Bat Flips & Nerds Hall of Fame voting to help illustrate how the opinions of (mainly) British baseball fans vary from those of the most respected baseball writers who cast their vote to send players to Cooperstown.
The headline of our results is that Ichiro Suzuki was elected with 100%. Perhaps Bat Flips & Nerds should be given responsibility for official voting.
Hall of Fame eligibility
Eligibility for the ballot is a player with at least 10 years of MLB experience who retired at least five years ago. Players stay on the ballot for a maximum of 10 years.
There were 28 candidates, half of whom were on a Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, and one, Billy Wagner, who was in the last chance saloon.
Players appearing on more than 75% of ballots are elected to the Hall of Fame. Players with less than 5% drop off the ballot.
Four successful electees
100% Ichiro Suzuki (99.7% official voting)
No messing about here. No ballots where he was omitted or forgotten. He appeared on every one of the 103 responses. Bat Flips & Nerds and their pals take their job seriously.
Despite not debuting in the USA until he was 27, Suzuki had more than 10,000 plate appearances, and collected more than 200 hits in each of his first 10 seasons. He finished his 19-year MLB career with a slash line of .311/.355/.402.
89% CC Sabathia (87% official voting)
Another 19-year MLB veteran (although unlike Suzuki, CC didn’t spend the first nine years of his career in Japan), Sabathia is one of the modern-day workhorse starters. All of his numbers are immense: 560 starts, more than 3,500 innings, more than 3,000 strikeouts, and a career 3.74 ERA (which includes the inevitable decline in performance in his mid-to-late 30s).
86% Carlos Beltrán (70%)
In the real vote, the Puerto Rican outfielder has jumped from 47% to 57% to 70% in his first three years on the ballot, so looks almost certain to break the 75% threshold next year. His 70 WAR career is undoubtedly Hall of Famer-calibre, but he is tarnished by helping to devise the Houston Astros sign-stealing system.
Unlike some of the other elite players who are struggling to garner enough support for election, Beltran is not tainted by performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) allegations.
79% Alex Rodriguez (37%)
Hmmm, this is a shocker. A-Rod’s career was absolutely incredible. 117 WAR is 47 more than anyone else on the ballot, and almost double the WAR accumulated by Ichiro Suzuki.
How much of his production is legitimate and how much was from cheating will never be known, but the official baseball writers are obviously ignoring Rodriguez for his multiple PED issues.
In his fourth year on the ballot, A-Rod continues to hover around 35%, which suggests he will never reach Cooperstown. Many players have PED clouds over them, but A-Rod was suspended for 211 games because of it. Perhaps Bat Flips & Nerds voters have a higher tolerance for cheating, or perhaps they think the Hall of Fame should include those with the most “fame”
Big discrepancies
43% Billy Wagner (83% official voting)
There is no question that Billy Wagner was an elite pitcher. The seven-time All-Star recorded 422 saves in a 16-year career. You can argue that he is a long way from the level of other Hall of Fame closers (Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman both broke the 600-save barrier) or you can take the view that of pitchers with at least 900 innings, he was second in ERA (2.31), second in WHIP (0.997), and first in strikeout rate (33.2 K%).
The stat I enjoy the most is… in his final season, he secured 37 saves for a 1.43 ERA with 104 strikeouts over 69 innings. This was as a 38-year-old. It was the epitome of going out on a high.
The fact that he made it in real life yet only received 43% of the votes in our ballot suggests that the official voters put far more weight on this being his last opportunity.
66% Félix Hernández (20%)
This is a fascinating discrepancy between the two polls. King Felix was a stud. He debuted as a 19-year-old in 2005, and was the best pitcher in baseball over the next 10 years – better than Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay, and CC Sabathia.
He won the 2010 Cy Young award and finished in the top eight in voting five other times. That he pitched on a losing team for most of his prime and that his prime didn’t stretch into his 30s, hurt him more in the eyes of the official voters than the Bat Flips & Nerds voters.
68% Manny Ramirez (34%)
Copy and paste the A-Rod paragraph. Manny produced a Hall of Fame-worthy career, but the PED suspension continues to prevent his election. As next year is his last opportunity, Ramirez will join Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, and others whose numbers were enhanced by PEDs, so will not be going to Cooperstown.
37% Mark Buehrle (11%)
Another player to receive far more love in the Bat Flips & Nerds vote was the long-term White Sox starter. In his first full season in 2001, Buehrle tossed 221 innings; he then threw at least 200 innings in each of the next 13 seasons. Simply incredible.
The left-hander only finished in the Top-5 of Cy Young voting once in his 60-WAR career, which probably influenced the lack of consideration from the real voters, although he did pitch a perfect game in 2009. Surely that boosts his Hall of Famer credentials?
25% Russell Martin (2%)
This is another head-scratcher, although I know that catchers don’t get enough attention from Hall of Fame voters. Advanced metrics do not adequately take into account the focus required for catching/framing/game-calling/hitting/coaching/motivating by a single player. Elite catchers are extraordinarily talented individuals.
Only three catchers have made the Hall this century, but you would have still expected Russell Martin to receive a little more consideration rather than getting knocked off the ballot at his first attempt.
He enjoyed a 14-year career, untarnished by scandal, in which he was an inspirational figure behind the plate for the Dodgers, Yankees, Pirates and Blue Jays. Perhaps the Bat Flips & Nerds voters made the decision with their hearts instead of analytics. I bet Russell Eassom didn’t vote for him.
[Editor’s note: I was wrong, and I apologise to Russell, who did indeed vote for Martin (and Brian McCann) with the note that “Martin and McCann have votes because people need to discuss the importance of catcher framing more. They need protecting from one and done.”]
Among other comments we received with ballots were…
- CC Sabathia is the most overrated on the ballot. I’d rather give his vote to Buehrle or Felix to make sure they stay on
- I’m forgiving Manny and A-Rod for their PED violations as they were two of the most era-defining hitters in MLB
- It’s petty, but never ARod!
Full results
Who would you have voted for? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Article by Gav Tramps. Want to get your thoughts and opinions and hot takes and bold predictions in front of Bat Flips & Nerds audience of 10,000+? Hit the Write for Us link.
